By Jamie Martin
A research team at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station is proving how artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality can reshape poultry processing. Professor Jeyam Subbiah leads the project, created after labour shortages during the pandemic exposed weaknesses in traditional poultry plant operations.
Plant work is often cold, wet, and physically hard, resulting in high employee turnover. To address this, researchers designed systems where operators use virtual reality headsets to control robotic arms remotely. Data gathered from these sessions trains AI programs, allowing the robots to work more independently over time.
Food safety is another priority. An autonomous rover with a robotic arm takes sanitation samples and checks for pathogens. Hyperspectral imaging, guided by AI, detects the “woody breast” meat defect with 98 percent accuracy. Low-cost thermal cameras locate hidden foreign objects like plastics or bone chips in packaged products, ensuring better quality.
The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture funds the four-year, $5 million Center for Scalable and Intelligent Automation in Poultry Processing. Partners include Georgia Tech, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Fort Valley State University.
Researchers believe these methods can be adapted to other meats such as goats and sheep. Combining AI, robotics, and virtual reality provides a path to safer, more efficient, and future-ready poultry plants.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-prostock-studio
Categories: National